Monday, August 31, 2015

Tomorrow is the first day of September and this means it's the first day of
Blood Cancer Awareness Month (BCAM).

All through September, share your stories & advice -- help us in the
fight against blood cancer. We'll be using BCAM
throughout September and we encourage
you to do the same!

You may know someone living with a chronic condition and not know it. People with Myelofibrosis, Essential
Thrombocythemia and Polycythemia Vera may not show any outward sign but they are suffering with some debilitating symptoms. Fatigue, uncontrolled itching, bone and joint pain are just three common symptoms. They know how important it is to continue to fund life-saving
research into these cancers.

While the National Institutes for Health is tasked with funding medical
research, their budget is often focused on diseases that affect larger
populations. It is up to the MPN patient community to band together to make
some noise when possible to remind people they have the ability to change their
prognosis to remind people that they do
have the ability to change their prognosis. During September, Blood Cancer
Awareness Month, we're asking anyone who knows someone living with one of these
conditions to change their FB profile image as we've seen done for so many
other (worthy!) causes. . During September, Blood Cancer Awareness
Month, we’re asking patients and anyone who knows someone living with one of
these conditions to change their Facebook profile image as we’ve seen done for so
many other worthy causes.

This is meaningful to a population of people living with a rare cancer, but
it isn’t all that we’re asking people to do. Make a donation today: (https://www.givedirect.org/give/givefrm.asp?CID=12140)
and share with your family and friends that you are making a difference and want
them to make some noise to help you change your prognosis. We need to make
everyone aware that there are people in our community fighting to find better
treatments and cures.

These are some tiles you can use on your Facebook posts.This veers slightly into slacktivism, but it
isn't all that we're asking people to do, and it is meaningful to a population
of folks with rare disease. So change your profile pic, make a donation to
support research (https://www.givedirect.org/give/givefrm.asp?CID=12140
if you can) and just know that there are people out there fighting to find
cures and better treatments and a greater understanding of what ails you (and
what may ail you one day). ‪#‎BCAM